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Sunday, July 16th, 2006
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10:31 pm - It's official...
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I have been in Greece for exactly one year today!
16th July 2005, 00:00, I was queued up outside Waterstones in High St Ken, and got the Harry Potter book, even had a photo taken. And now, a year on, I'm in Greece, and have signed a contract for a job.
I will post more details soon...
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| Sunday, April 30th, 2006
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4:13 pm - Hmm
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Time has flown, lots to say.
I've finally got round to putting the National Day photo gallery up, which you can find here. Highlights include the multitude of tanks, female soldiers, firemen in silver suits, shaven head scuba divers, as well as the traditional Greek soldiers. Also keep in mind that every single police car and motorbike in Greece attended, you can really see the power of the police here!
More to add later...
current music: Kingdom Hearts II OST - Sacred Moon
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| Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006
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4:17 pm
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Hmm, been a while, time for an update.
My parents came back from their holiday in Spain, happy at seeing the family, to find our beloved golden hamster, Little One (named by my sister as you can tell), sleeping peacefully in her little igloo. She died some time when they were away, but she was a lovely creature. They bought her from Exeter (thus she probably has a Westcountry accent) when she was small and grey colour, then when Maria and I saw her again, she was gigantic and golden, a big change. Thankfully we have a picture of two before she died, and I'll be posting them up on my website soon.
Maria and I were looking at tickets to Spain for the summer, my cousin is getting married, and we managed to get a good deal from a travel agent (somehow it being cheaper than the online price!). We're going today to pay for it. It will be nice to see them all again and catch up on the news in general.
Cass came back from her American trip and sent me a lovely parcel with a real Florida number plate (which I'll hang up in my room somewhere), Cream eggs and Caramel Eggs (both packs were finished two days after being received), Doraemon sweets, a keychain and a Japanese lucky sleeping cat. Very cool!
While we were out reserving the air tickets, there were MIGs, Eurofighters, Apache and Chinook helicopters flying overhead. No, Greece hasn't been invaded by America or Russia, nor been taken over by a dictator (yet), but practising for the annual celebration on Saturday, for victory against 'the evil Turks'. Naturally, our trip to the Turkish restaurant with our classmates will be postponed for another week. I'll be taking plenty more pics of this march, and I hope to see more tanks around the place.
current mood:  exhausted
current music: Kanon (D-dur) Quartet
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| Sunday, March 12th, 2006
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11:34 am
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Yesterday we had a blackout for about 5 minutes, thought it was around midday. Computer shut off badly, but it was fun upon turning back on again. Perhaps a UPS would be handy, seeing as how things like this do happen regularly.
Graduated from my beginners Greek class, and got 99% correct (just around five mistakes throughout the whole paper). As expected, there were more errors in the written section, but surprisingly I did manage to put out some coherent sentences there. Maria was impressed by my knowledge of the language, and even showed it to her mum and sister.
We all went out as a group to Τα τρια Χουρούνια, or, The Three Pigs. Had a hot choc there and we chatted for a long time, Voula was interested in my writing seeing as I wrote about it in every 'personal dialog' that we wrote. She was impressed, as were the others who were listening (the music was very loud, leading to deaf ears at some point). We gave her some chocolates before she left, and she was quite moved. I hope we get her as our teacher again for the Intermediate class, as she was very good and an inspiration to us all.
Talking of writing, Maria and I were discussing my stories, and then asked me if I created any original characters... Well, that was the end of good sleep, we talked for 4 hours about the teenage/young adult book I had in my mind. I discussed each individual character in detail and their description, personality, and abilities. Suffice to say, she loved the whole idea, and insisted I go through with writing it. I've already written bios for the four main characters, and one day I would like to write a full book of this.
current mood:  listless
current music: Chuugoku Nekonron daikessen! Okite yaburi no geki - Kessen! Hashi no Kabe
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| Wednesday, March 8th, 2006
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4:56 pm
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Well, had fun at the summer home, walked on the beach, had enough kalamari and prawns to fill a marina, and wrote a great deal on my Jornada. Weather has been improving lately too, which is always a bonus.
Had my exam for Greek, and I think I pretty much aced it, apart from the 'write a day in your life' section. As is the usual with me, I went adventurous and wrote loads of words I've never used before, probably running into new problems that we haven't covered, such as passive tense. Regardless, it went well.
current mood:  cheerful
current music: Silent Hill 3 - Hometown
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| Saturday, March 4th, 2006
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7:07 pm
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Maria's birthday was on Wednesday, and she made some crostini (toasted French bread with various topping on it), a lobster pasta in red sauce, and her lovely cake, strawberries on the top with a nice pink mousse and sponge inside. We had fun that day.
Yesterday, we went to the Mall, near Maroussi. A hell of a lot nicer than before Christmas, due to the absence of several million people milling about the place. They've finally built the bridge from the local Metro station, which saves us from having to walk along the motorway to get there (as we did last time). There were still some sales on, so grabbed a bargain in the form of Call of Duty 2, and also a brand spanking new Logitech G5 mouse. No sign of the lush Logitech G15 keyboard, but it'll only be a matter of time before it's released here...
Bought some books, The Black Angel, and The Eight. I'm sure to start reading those over the next couple of weeks. The Asti Spumante code looks hilarious too, but I didn't get it, yet...
Monday is the beginning of Lent (again you say? I know, I must've been wrong), and this time, to celebrate this occasion, you fly a kite... Don't ask me why because I haven't the faintest... Still, we're going to the summer home and will undoubtedly purchase a cheap one and fly it for a bit, maybe on the beach, then have some kalamari, as tradition states.
current mood:  optimistic
current music: Silent Hill OST - She
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| Friday, February 24th, 2006
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12:24 am
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| Thursday, February 23rd, 2006
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11:59 pm
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Today is a special day in Greece, very holy seeing as it's about the the start of Lent.
Let us bow our heads and pray...
Or if you really don't care about all that religious stuff, it's also known as stuff-your-face-with-meat day. Yes, every taverna, souvlaki joint, takeaway and restuarant you can think of has been populated by the vast majority of people tonight, to eat as much as possible. Naturally, this is my heaven, and I partook in this by having pasticcio, hard to describe the lovely taste, but it looks like a lasagne, except with long thin penne style pasta.
Oh, and lots of meat. Yummy!
current mood:  energetic
current music: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - The Battle
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| Wednesday, February 22nd, 2006
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6:28 pm - Heh
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Typical Greek strikes, funny how they end up sometimes though... I'm beginning to hate this government though, they're making things shitter by the week it seems. Strikes, high unemployment, high prices and whatnot.
OTE really takes the cake though. I thought that they were modern for offering broadband, but it turns out that they're bastards overall. First, you have to pay monthly line rental for a broadband speed, THEN you have to get a provider (we, cleverly enough, went for OTENET), and then are charged the startup fee and extra monthly fees for the ISP. I'm only thankful we went for the unlimited bandwidth choice...
They've been accused of many evil things, lately they raised the price of dial-up by 300% and only slightly lowered broadband prices, thus forcing people to go for the more expensive option, as it's only slightly more expensive and you get 'a better connection'. Oh yes, not only that, but the 384 and 512 lines have packet restrictions, hence the reason my ping is horrendous on any CS/DoD server based outside Greece. It also prevent VoIP from working properly, so Skype is out of the question, making you need to use OTE for phonecalls.
Guess that's why, if you Google 'ληστές', Greek for 'thieves', then you'll come up with the OTE homepage. For more amusing Googlebombs, see here.
current mood:  annoyed
current music: Silent Hill 2 Original Soundtracks - Betrayal
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| Sunday, February 19th, 2006
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10:15 pm - I wonder how it happens...
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As you may know, some of my parcels went on a little trip inside the Greek postal service over Xmas, resulting in late gifts.
Well, another one, Jamie's Italy, really took the biscuit. It never arrived. Complained and the reissued one never arrive. Final complaint and we agreed to send it to London, whereby my parents would send it off to me in a jiffy bag (and thus arrive at my door as opposed to getting lost, stuck in the local post office, or what we thought of as stolen from our front door).
Imagine my surprise when Maria receives a small note saying two have arrived in her name. We go check, and yes, two Jamie's Italy book... And a third is on the way...
We still cannot imagine what the hell went on. I can only surmise that they took the lesser known postal route from Jersey to Greece, via the USA and Russia. There's no other human explanation, other than the Greeks fouling it up somehow, but even I doubt it could have gone so spectacularly bad.
Purchased some stuff from IKEA, a new white bookshelf, one of the main items I've been wanting, two rugs, a red and black one, Maria's lovely glass desk (which we needed to return the surface as they 'misinformed' us, thankfully, the service was excellent and we got our money back two days later) and 2/3's of my sofa.
2/3's you say? Well, they never seem to have the mattress in, it's really popular. So I bought the red cover, and the metallic base. It becomes a bed, and as it's double size, you can imagine it's going to be pretty handy when people come over to sleep. Can't wait until the whole thing is complete, my room will be finally finished!
Uploaded Chapter 8 of my Ranma fic, 21 reviews in two days, a good return I'd say. Going to focus on my other main project for a bit (FLCL/Evangelion) as the last update was in 2004!
current mood:  jubilant
current music: Day of Defeat: Source - Game Startup 2
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| Sunday, February 12th, 2006
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11:39 pm - Over a week old but...
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The new cast of Harry Potter have been confirmed. For ease of checking, the following images show the people in question.
( Click to view )
Overall, good choice, though I always imagined Luna to have large goggly, watery eyes, and thin face/figure and long blonde hair. At least the latter is true. Looking forward to seeing pictures of the movie.
BTW, sales in Athens are incredible. 50% off Nike trainers! Got myself a pair of those summer 'Shox' trainers, black with silver trimmings. Funky. Also got a suede/white/green pair of Adidas. Very nice indeed.
current mood:  working
current music: Day of Defeat: Source - Startup 2
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| Tuesday, February 7th, 2006
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12:11 am - Two movie reviews
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Munich, by Spielberg. Was drawn by the trailer, knowing a little of what happened in '72. Went to see it with Maria on Saturday.
Basic plot: After the deaths of the athletes, a man is hired to go and kill the people who masterminded it, leaders of a group called Black September.
You could already tell by the start that the whole thing would end in tragedy, the music playing at the assasin group's meal (when they were discussing their ordinary jobs). These were ordinary people with ordinary lives, and you learn that from the very beginning.
However, the 'terrorists' were also portrayed as such, ordinary people. You feel for those who were killed, the author buying food from his local grocer in Italy, the man whose wife kept interrupting him in a fake interview, the other man who joked with Avner about the married couple next door. It was sad they way most of them died (bombs), and somewhat ironic that most of them would go wrong. There were some heart stopping moments though, when the daughter picked up the phone, the 'safe house', the failed bomb in the TV... The ending and subsequent paranoia was well made, and you could tell the futileness of all that transpired.
For me, the sad part was the ultimate rejection at the end, how one word can make you realise that an entire country rejects you, because you refuse to return there. A powerful movie, rather gory in the gun and bomb scenes, and moving. See it if you're after a thriller, with little out and out action, but more crafty methods, and deep thinking about morals.
Ranking: 8/10 - Thriller, unexpected twists, exciting but tragic story.
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In her shoes: Cameron Diaz and some other woman.
Basic plot: CD sleeps with man that other woman liked, big fight ensues, and they both depart from their normal lives. CD goes away, and the other changes her job and outlook on life.
True girl movie, saw this with Maria, and an open, more feminine mind (which reminds me to lock it up again). Quite funny, and emotional, lots of lovely drama, angst and romance for all women out there. Interesting to see how both their lives changed so much just by changing one tiny aspect of it. For CD, she went off to find her grandmother, a person thought of as dead. The other woman takes extended leave from being a lawyers, and then becomes a professional dog walker.
A tad unrealistic that all their problems would be solved by such a small thing, but it resulted in love, and the feeling of being whole again via family. A whole load of character growth occurred too. Anyway, mushy movie undoubtedly, have the tissues out (for the women), though be warned for one scene in the retirement home, when the bed was empty. Caught me off guard there (though not unexpected). Watch this if you're strong enough for your (female) emotions to be played with. Note that men can also notice things that women don't, such as the obvious shy crush/love from the other male lead.
Ranking: 7/10 - Girls only, mushy, lovey, but better than most of the other ones.
current mood:  thoughtful
current music: .hack//Liminality - OST - 10 - Humiliation
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| Sunday, February 5th, 2006
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10:42 pm - Okay, the gallery is finally uploaded...
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Now, to describe the holiday.
( Pics inside! )
The photo gallery can be found here. Feel free to look.
current mood:  determined
current music: John Williams - Bearing the Burden
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| Wednesday, February 1st, 2006
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11:11 am - *sighs*
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Came back from our short trip yesterday, then ran off to my Greek lesson in record time. We went up into the mountains where people were skiing.
Pictures coming soon, once I upload the gallery.
current mood:  sad
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| Friday, January 27th, 2006
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10:42 pm
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Received an email yesterday, saying I've been chosen to be part of the beta for Auto Assault. This is excellent news, and I'm downloading the files as we speak. However 3 gigs on a 325 kbps connection may take a while (10 hours so far, and it's at 892megs).
Hopefully one day (as I'll be away this weekend since we're going on a trip to a ski resort, minus the skiing), next beta test, I'll show you my new green mutant woman with accompanying vehicle.
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| Wednesday, January 25th, 2006
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9:21 pm - Not exactly Christmas...
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2:21 am
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Wow, there was snow in Athens today, fecking cold too, thank heavens for a warm home to come back too, our radiators are maddening in their furnace-like heat.
Oh, I also went to an interview on Friday for a job as a technical writer. What a dream job, eh? Combining my two main loves in life, writing and computing. It's based outside of Athens, but it'll be worth it.
current mood: optimistic
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| Wednesday, January 18th, 2006
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6:37 pm
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Lately, I've been getting into too much looong fanfiction (read, over 100,000 words), namely Ranma and (of all things) Harry Potter.
However, these aren't your ordinary ones, these are the complete rewrites, when someone goes back in time to change the past. I've got about 5 HP stories being monitored at my ff.net profile, as well as a few Ranma stories.
Of course, this has led me to think of a HP story in the vein of The Demon's Contract, a Ranma story where he goes back, but doesn't try to put everyone's life in order. It's good to read, a refreshing change from all the perfect changes in other fics. Not that I'm against those ones, the ambition in some of the fics I've read surpasses anything else.
Anyways, I'm writing my Nabiki mystery still, glad to see that people are intrigued by it. I also updated my legendary Book 3 series, chapter 24, and received good reviews, encouraging me that I haven't lost the touch to write a slow moving love/romance novel. I hope to continue this soon.
current mood:  contemplative
current music: Fahrenheit - Quiz Music
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| Monday, January 16th, 2006
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8:44 pm
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Had a nice long psychological discussion with Maria and Anastasia over what we humans consider to be a good person, and a bitch.
Conclusions reached:
The pretty girl in school will undoubtedly become a bitch, knowing that she has the best looks, and can use them to her advantage.
Likewise for the handsome boy, he'll instantly become the person who can strut his stuff.
However, if the prettiest girl doesn't become a bitch (it does happen), either she doesn't want to use her power or is just so good inside that she can't even imagine doing so, then she isn't the prettiest girl.
Beauty isn't necessarily good looks, if you possess the attitude of a stud/bitch, then you'll automatically be though of as cool and henceforth pretty/handsome.
Those people who have good souls don't instantly have ugly looks. However, they do remain in the shadows as they don't like to draw attention to themselves, preferring to get closer to others by first making friends, then seeing where it goes.
current mood: cheerful
current music: Patrick Doyle - Voldemort
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| Friday, January 13th, 2006
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11:34 pm
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Another movie to add to my 'watched' list. Memoirs of a Geisha was quite close to the book from what I recall. They really captured the environment back then, the subtleties of Japanese culture (the striking of flint to create sparks, a sign of giving luck to someone), even though there were worries over the main actresses being Chinese.
Overall, another fine production. Much different to my usual action fare, a sedate pace detailing the childhood of Chiyo, in training to become a geisha, then finally becoming one and taking the name of Sayuri, all for her beloved Chairman. Include jealousy of another main geisha, subplots involving her virginity, and you've got a thought provoking movie. Music was great, camera work and scenes were masterful. There must have been some CG in there, showing the old rooftops, but for the life of me, I couldn't see any (maybe it's still like that, who knows?) The script was good, as I mentioned earlier, close to the book without missing anything too important.
current mood:  happy
current music: Namco - Ground Zero Funk (Final Stage 2)
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